Monday, 3 October 2016

And guess what ... I have lots in my favourite shades - blues and sea greens! With a bit of grey too.

Fantastic ... I can work a scrap blanket using my favourite colours!

Only snag ... the more I worked on it the more I thought I might just have to keep it!

I decided that I would just do a simple double crochet stitch/ (For anyone who is in the UK - I work with American terms! I don't know why, I think I must have learnt and then worked from a book with American terms and now I find that I crochet the Amercian way!) I thought this would be simple and almost mindless, meaning that I could watch the telly and not have to think too much! Ideal for me come the evening!

The yarns that went into this were very varied - there's a bit of mohair; a bit of a more fuzzy one that I have no idea what yarn it is; acrylic; part wool ... all sorts ... I just thought I'd throw them all in together and make a really pretty blanket!

I love how it turned out and it really was a wrench for it to leave the house ... but my thinking on that is that I can always make another one...!

Monday, 8 August 2016

Sometimes there are the most unusual, strange, or just plain different swap titles.

This one is run by an www.atcsforall.com member in Slovakia.

And called "Antler People", which is basically what it says on the tin - people with antlers!

As usual we have to make three cards, and generally people make a fourth one

as a gift to the person who hosts the swaps.

Running a swap is pretty hard work, as I found out for myself when I ran my first swap.

I decided to go for the theme "Folk ~ Primitive Art" as I hadn't seen any of those in

recent art history on www.atcsforall.com

As it was my first swap I was allowed to have 12 players. It was so exciting to see people signing up to play! It showed me that it was a pretty good choice of theme!

Above (x 3) is all the cards I received in the swap. So I had 12 x 4 as they all included a hostess card for me! I absolutely loved receiving all the delightful creations in the post. It was like my birthday every day.

I decided that I wanted to make a card for each of the players too - so I could send them three back and an extra from me to say thank you for joining the swap.

Above (x 2) are my Folk Art cards.

I had great fun sorting through the cards, deciding which ones I was going to have as the hostess card

and then dealing out three different artists to each player.

And even more exciting is that they are arriving at their new homes as I write this!

***

I also participate in one to one trades.

So I trade one (or two, or three or however many we agree on) with another trader.

I traded with a member in America. She wanted owls. So here are my three owls for her.

I love creating and drawing owls! I think they are by far my most favourite bird!

There are also Round Robin swaps/trades going on.

Both in hand-drawn and hand-painted, and mixed media.

These consist of three cards where the first player draws the same picture on each card.

In the card above the first player drew the pirate.

I then received the three cards and decided to add a pirate ship. These are now being sent to the third and final player. She is going to draw the last item on the card and then all three of us get one of the cards!

I have also decided to be the starter on the set below.

I love Gorjuss and decided to draw my version of her on my three cards.

Monday, 11 July 2016

Amidala was a special request from a member who'd seen one I'd made previously for another trade.

It has taken me a while to make her. Hopefully her recipient likes her!

The Elephant's Eye was a prompt for the ATC forum within Ravelry.

I thought I would show you the picture I took my inspiration from. As you can see it is in no way as good but it does show what it is!

I held off from drawing this one as I kept thinking it was going to be hard.

And I had to make seven for the girls that are in the swap!

So I confess I cheated here ... I drew one copy and then scanned it in to make seven ...

I really didn't think I'd have it in me to draw it seven times :-/

I really hope that the girls don't mind getting a copy!

I love the www.atcsforall.com site as it pushes me. (I am currently drawing a chihuahua!)

I have prompts and ideas that are not what I would usually choose to draw/paint/create ...

and I am finding that I am loving it!

The one above is of someone I had never heard of ... Abigail Cable and Swamp Thing! I had to research this. This was for a MMH (Make Me Happy) Comic Book trade.

Basically one person lists three characters they'd like an atc of

and the next person says they'll make them happy with one of them and then lists their three choices.

A great way to get lots of new and different cards.

Below are four cards I made for the Roaring 20s swap. They are slightly blurred - the scanner wasn't playing ball and I think they were still slightly curled from glue (I often need a heavy book or two to weight them down!)

Great fun playing and making collages with paper and pictures!

And another MMH (Make Me Happy) forum - this time for mixed media hearts.

And you all know how much I love hearts!

The one above I decided to make to "match" a Chunky Page I'd made for a member and send them both off together.

A Chunky Page is usually a 4 inch by 4 inch square made from thicker card. They can be just hand-drawn or painted - or as I have done here - mixed media - lots of pictures and bits of paper and cut-outs!

A Chunky Page can have added tassels and bits. The recipient usually says if they want the left hand side left clear for about half an inch or a hole punched at the top or wherever - this means they can then bind the pages together and make a snazzy book!